Prof Mahmudur Rahman new chair of WHO advisory panel

Health Desk-- May 21, 2017: Prof Dr Mahmudur Rahman, a renowned Bangladeshi public health expert, has been elected the chairman of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Advisory Group of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He was also the former director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).

He was the lone Bangladeshi who earlier sat in two of the three WHO emergency committees formed under the International Health Regulations (IHR) that came into force in 2007, after the 2002 SARS virus outbreak.

The 18-member advisory panel comprises health minister as well as health experts of as many countries across the world, according to the WHO.

The member states developed the PIP Framework, and it came into effect on May 24 in 2011 when it was unanimously adopted by the Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly.

It is aimed to improve pandemic influenza preparedness and response and strengthening the protection against the pandemic influenza by enhancing and strengthening the WHO global influenza surveillance and intervention system.

They also provide with an annual report on its evaluation of the implementation of the PIP Framework to the director-general.

While serving as a director of the IEDCR for 10 years, Prof Rahman played the key role in establishing the National Influenza Center, Nipah and bio-safety level (BSL) 3 laboratory, web-based disease surveillance, and led the 2009 pandemic response in Bangladesh.

Besides editing “Text Book of Community Medicine and Public Health”, he authored 98 publications in international and national peer-reviewed journals.